Genealogy Chat

I forward all the banks, building socities, ebay and paypal ones on to them. ebay and paypal is just spoof@ followed by their name and .com.

The others I just dump in junk. I did lose my cool one day when I received a horrific one - I didnt see any pics but the words were bad enough re bestiality. I couldnt help it, I replied to them in the strongest terms basically telling them to rot in hell. Afterwards I thought Ill probably get dozens more now, but surprisingly Ive never had any more porn ones since then.

nudge for Amanda

I had one of the letters, supposedly from a barrister about money left. I replied 'you must think I am bonkers'.
Also from banks, building societies asking for my details, did not use either, so just deleted.

So beware of these

Bookmarked, to give a nudge to another time, too.

Some people may not realise that whatever is posted in public can always be seen again later, even if it has been deleted.

Have you ever sent an e-mail to a paper or radio/TV programme?
If so, google your e-mail address and see what you find!!
I was shocked to see some personal details about myself - written by me in an e-mail to a programme - on the internet,
Fortunately my e-mail address isn't my name, and I have since changed it so I have been saved the embarrassment of work colleagues etc finding out things that have nothing to do with them and I don't want them to know!!!

maggie

nudge

So true Heather, honest folk tend to think everyone else is as honest as themselves.

This place must be an absolute goldmine for the crooks.

Thats the point Claire, we all tend to be so trusting - believing people are what they say they are and of course sometimes they arent!

I do worry now and then just how much a crook could pick up from the threads on here - dates, names, addresses etc.

Seems we teach our kids how to be safe on the internet but forget the basics ourselves.

What you type in to Genes can also appear on Google, therefore be careful what you write especially on the top row of a thread.
There are 78 people on here with Mickey Mouse in their tree, point being that person you are talking to may not be who they are reporting to be.
Never ever post your email address on a thread, if you trust someone with it, send it PM
Never ever post a telephone number on a thread especially someone else's!
Follow the same principles with addresses, only post those from many years ago.
You may wish to find a lost living relation but remember they may not want their personal info spread across the internet.

Also be aware of what you are doing when doing lookups on living people. Probably a genuine query but could be something more sinister


I'm sorry to bang on about this but I've seen all of the above done. It's an unfortunate fact of life the fraudsters & criminals have internet access.